


Death

by my_gender_is_5_bucks_and_a_d20



Category: Original Work
Genre: Afterlife, Death, Gen, JUST, Like, potentially heavy shit, probably not tho, talking about death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-09
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 18:34:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,471
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28640097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/my_gender_is_5_bucks_and_a_d20/pseuds/my_gender_is_5_bucks_and_a_d20
Summary: A story of Death I wrote a couple days back, might add more. A grim reaper, Death, reflects upon how death and afterlives work in their universe
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> TALKS A LOT ABOUT DEATH   
> WARNING  
> IF YOU DON'T WANT DEATH AND TALKING ABOUT DEATH  
> DO NOT READ

The puppy sniffled as I held it. It understood what was happening, perhaps a bit too well for one so young, and I cursed the world for its unfairness. I was stuck here, only able to comfort the small animal, while it passed through the gateway from Life into my realm, Death. After that, it could be happy, but until then it suffered, its little noises breaking my heart.

Finally, after a few minutes, its soul rose from its body, while I lay on the ground. I couldn’t really interact with the living world, except to help those leaving it on their way. I gathered the now restless dog soul in my arms, and took it home

When we arrived at the gates of Death, the puppy settled, and lay in my arms. I walked through, the only one who could do so at will, and was faced with the vastness of heaven. All animals go to heaven, to their own version of it. Humans have a misconception that they are the only sentient beings - the only ones with souls. If one simply observed animals in the wild, it was clear they were sentient - they could feel the breeze, and preferred certain foods to others. 

_ Humans certainly are egotistical _ , I thought to myself,  _ thinking that they are the chosen animal of God. They fight each other, start wars over nothing, destroy the planet God so carefully created. They hate each other based on nothing but the color of their skin, or their gender, or sexual orientation. Why would God, who sculpted every living thing to their will or want, make  _ humans _ their favorite? Other animals fight off of instinct, or because it’s necessary for survival and evolution, and it has been shown to humans that plenty members of the animal kingdom can experience homosexuality, gender fluidity, and so much more. How narrow-minded. _

However, these thoughts made me pause. There were still good traits in humanity - compassion for others, love, loyalty. They were traits present in other species - the dog I had just helped being a prime example - but they did it on a much larger scale, helping hundreds or thousands of people, rather than just a couple.  _ And, _ I thought shrewdly to myself,  _ was I not once human as well, before these robes were forced upon me? _

As I had these thoughts swirling around my head, I watched the small dog bounding away. He looked quite happy, especially when he saw his mother. There were many Deaths, or rather, many versions of Death, but I believed I was the one that had helped her. It made me happy to see them reunited, if sad about the circumstances. It also made me think even more.

Obviously, everybody wants to live. Even Paradise, Heaven, couldn’t compare to the colors, the fragrances, the  _ culture _ one could experience on Earth. However, that’s only for those that could experience those things back when they were alive. Those who were abused, hurt, poor, couldn’t experience the vastness of life and its many good things would happily choose Death over Life. Some chose to fade away, some wanted to relive a certain moment forever, some wanted death to be as close to life as they could.

Death, overall, has been quite a touchy subject for humans. When God created Earth, it was more of a test, to see how a planet would function naturally. They caused a meteor carrying living beings to crash into Earth, which started the largest butterfly effect ever, leading to the world as I know it. Humans started the thought of a Creator, a God, all on their own, as God didn’t want to interfere with the goings-on of the planet. They wanted to know how species would develop without divine intervention, and they found that death was the scariest of subjects. The gods and pantheons were created by humans to describe that which they didn’t know, and death was at the top of that list. Intrigued by what the humans were doing, God set about creating different pocket universes, which were the different afterlives thought up by humans. They created the Egyptian afterlife, with the scales, Osiris, and Ammut; Hades, with the three sections, Elysium, the Fields of Asphodel, and the Fields of Punishment (as well as the Isles of the Blest); the typical ‘Christian’ afterlife, with Heaven and Purgatory, basically anything humans can think of. Whatever a human believed, their soul would be pulled toward that podim (pocket dimension, as we call it), with the guidance of a Death to make sure they end up at exactly the correct place.

All animals go to their own version of heaven, more based around individual desires rather than a belief system. As animals don’t really have beliefs, they just do whatever they want for eternity.

The subject of ‘eternity’ is also something terrifying to fathom. Humans were only meant to live for about a century, usually less, and then kinda disappear. This is actually kind of terrifying, to be honest, the idea of vanishing and never coming back in any way. It is difficult to think of, eternity, and raises even more questions. Like, if you have this afterlife, eventually it’s going to get boring. Take however long you want, fifteen years, one hundred years, even a billion years, you’re going to get bored. And once you get bored, what are you going to do? You could choose to pass on, but that finality of true death might still scare you. If you continue to ‘live’, as it is, you probably won’t get any less bored.

Or if you somehow manage to live forever on Earth. It is more vibrant, there is more to do, but you’ll still get bored, even when new things come out. You could get every degree, figure out quantum mechanics or whatever you want to do, you will eventually bore yourself. And then what? You would still be alive, even when the rest of the universe dies. A comic from a comic strip I’ve seen, Calvin and Hobbes, sums it up pretty well in the description of a snowman Calvin built: The Torment of Existence Weighed Against the Horror of Nonbeing.

Anyway, I watched the puppy tear across the grass (we were in a large field with lots of other dogs) to his mother, happy at the reunion. Unfortunately, I had work to do, and as such couldn’t stick around.

I walked out of the gate, ready to face the world and my next person. We received our instructions telepathically when we returned to Earth, so we didn’t have to worry about forgetting. My next… client(?) was a man by the name of Anthony Sprouse, and he was a secular humanist, meaning that he thought humanity could be moral and good without the need for a god. Typically, atheists of any kind would go to Non-existence, a terrifying but also calm place where people would basically just sleep for all time, peacefully dreaming and seeming half-conscious, but not fully awake.


	2. Anthony

However, this mortal shocked me. Apparently, rather than going to Non-Existence, he was supposed to be trained as a Death, because of his morality and compassion toward others. I took a deep breath, and went to visit him.

When I got to him, he was in the hospital. He was hooked up to an IV, and his breathing was labored. He looked at me with pain-filled, almost closed eyes. He didn’t say anything, but I could still understand him.

“Is it my time?” he thought, unconsciously directing his words at me.

“Yes.”

“You know, I never believed in a god.”

“I know.”

“Am I going to hell?”

“That depends. Do you believe in hell?”

“Well, technically, no.”

“Then no.”

“Why are you here?”

“You know why.”

“Yes, I suppose I do. What will happen to my husband?”

“I wish I could tell you he’ll be fine, but I don’t know.”

“I wish I could say goodbye.”

I sighed, and told him, “I can take you to him, but he won’t know you’re there.”

“Please.”

His eyes slid shut as he died, and he let out a sigh of relief. He rose from his body, and I extended my hand. 

“Come with me.”

We went out of the hospital, out of the room with the flatlining heart monitor, out of the place of life and death. He brought me to their house, which was in the suburbs of LA. He pointed out his neighbors: Mrs. Donogan, who was the first to welcome the men to the street, bringing them cookies, Mr. T., who always supported them and got very angry if anyone ever was rude or homophobic to them, M. Starr, who had a pride flag on their front lawn and was welcoming of anyone who wanted to come by.


End file.
